


Taking notes and taking names (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 23 - Shuffle)

by Ivelia



Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [23]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers, Tumblr: FFXIVwrite2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26634340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivelia/pseuds/Ivelia
Summary: Part of my attempt for #FFXIVWrite2020 - September 23 (Day 23 - Shuffle)Becoming a good adventurer requires a keen memory and sense of observation it seemsSpoilers for Patch 5.3, please read at your own discretion!
Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906951
Kudos: 2





	Taking notes and taking names (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 23 - Shuffle)

\- “And... done!” exhaling relieved sight, the Elezen carefully applied the blotting paper on the piece of parchment she had just finished writing on. She was sitting a bit apart from the others, but her unusually satisfied aura as she was putting the papers in order in a queer, strangely embellished stack that could be barely called as a notebook attracted the attention of her fellow scions.

\- “What are you writing?” 

\- “Oh, this? It’s a little something for the children of Menphina’s Arms orphanage in Dravania” 

\- “Oh, is this Khloe’s Wondrous Tails?” G’raha seemed to be particularly knowledgeable about this. Somehow, she wasn’t even surprised any more. He explained to the others “It’s a romanticized version of her adventures, that were written for young orphans in Idyllshire.” Really, it was quite admirable; not only did she work hard on various tasks ranging from delivering packages to saving the world, she also did a lot of charity work, like taking the time to do this...

* * *

\- “You’re not taking this with you?” Alisaie enquired, seeing that she put it on a nearby bookshelf once she finished ordering the sheets and carefully tying them together.

\- “Nah, that thing will fall apart, if a monster does as much as breathing on it” she laughed. “I’ll leave this here, since I have some work to do, and come back to pick it up before the next time I go to Dravania.” She left the Rising Stones in a hurry, as usual, leaving the precious volume to the safety of the shelves, or so she thought.

* * *

\- “I kinda want to know what she wrote in there”, Alisaie, looking intently at the notebook. Her fixed, intense stare, burning with curiosity, alerted her brother.

\- “You should probably not touch this” he suggested. The  _ thing _ , an assemblage of pieces of parchment of various colors and thicknesses barely held together with a piece of rope and covered in a weirdly folded piece of leather, looked  _ fragile _ . No wonder she’d rather not bring it around, and would only add to it when she was in a relatively calm and secure space.

\- “What, it’s just a peek. Aren't you guys curious?” Seeing her sibling’s reticence, she tried to enlist the Warrior of Light’s number two fan (after her of course), G’raha Tia, to help pressure Alphinaud. Surely, the Miqo’te would not refuse the occasion to know what kind of adventures she was up to when she was no with them?

\- “I’m not really interested...” He lied. Of course he was interested in seeing the brand new, original pieces of the Gospel of Khloe, but… On the other hand, it’s not like he didn’t know  _ every single one _ of those texts by heart anyway; he somehow felt that this would not end well, and opted for an early, gracious retreat. “See you later!” (Still in one piece, I hope).

\- “You should just ask her when she comes back” Alphinaud chided. It would be simple to ask her what she was doing, or ask beforehand if they could touch that thing.

\- “I’d rather not trouble her with that, and there's probably nothing too private on it, since she’ll be giving it to the children”. She marched to the shelves to take the notebook “I’ll just take a quick peek, and as long as you don’t say anything, she’ll never notice it-”. Or not. For as soon as she took the  _ Wondrous Tails _ out of the bookshelf, a shower of small, intricate pieces of paper fell from the volume.  _ Oops. _

\- “...! What are those?” she panicked, gathering the tiny drawings that had fallen to the floor.Those obviously came from the book, but from  _ where _ ?

\- “What are you doing-?” Alphinaud didn’t touch anything, but he knew that what Alisaie did, he would surely be implicated in, too. “We should probably just tell her”.

\- “No!” A categorical refusal. There was no way she was going to admit that she touched this without permission, that she damaged it, and didn’t know how to fix it.  _ No way _ .

\- “What are we, twelve, again?” No wait, at twelve, they were already top students at the Studium, and had long passed the time where they would play with stickers in a coloring book. He sighed, and as usual, went to help his sister. Noticing a blank grid sporting some strange, seemingly matching shapes, they stuffed the small drawings haphazardly in there before tying the folios back up.  _ What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. _

* * *

Later in the day, when the Warrior of Light came back to retrieve her notebook, she didn’t notice the Twins’ stiff pokerfaces, or the former Exarch’s look of schadenfreude. Suspecting nothing, she took the notebook, bringing it back to the youngest of the Aliapoh siblings:

\- “So, how are these stories?” This time, she worked hard to write nice stories and sort them according to the young Miqo’te weird numbering system, predicting how to order the pages so that once Khloe used her stickers, the book would come together as a cohesive whole.

\- “Miss Of Light, these stories…” Her almost crying, adorable face contorted in a pout “They’re all out of order…” In front of that cute, sorry visage, she could only, as usual, repress her internal cries of  _ just stick the damn stickers another way. _ How on Hydaelyn did this happen? She suddenly remembered the weird faces of her companions when she went back to the Rising Stones earlier.

\- (Those little gremlins…) Repressing a rather scary grimace behind a serene smile, she consoled the young Miqo’te:

\- “It’s ok, it’ll be better next time. And also, I’ll bring you some new friends to play with next time.”


End file.
